This invention pertains to game apparatus, and more particularly, to a unique game paddle and to a combination thereof with an aerial object such as a ball and the like.
Paddles, rackets, aerial objects and various games associated therewith have existed in myriad forms for many years--witness the tennis racket and tennis ball, badminton racket and birdie, squash racket and squash ball, ping pong paddle and ping pong ball, and so on, to form a long list of familiar entries. There is even in the known prior art patent literature a proposal for a baseball practice fielding bat wherein a stretch of taut rubber spans a hoop in a paddle frame--see U.S. Pat. No. 3,048,399.
An important characteristic of all of these devices in the prior art related field is that a selected paddle or racket is intended to produce highly controlled rebound of a related impacting aerial object. In particular, in the known art, what might be thought of as the rebound expanses in paddles are designed whereby rebound after impact approximates a performance where the axis of rebound is generally substantially a mirror image of the axis of impact (relative to a line which is normal to the usual nominal plane of the rebound expanse). It is this widely used rebound characteristic which enables, in each of the specific paddle/aerial object areas of interest, controlled, highly predictable play.
Proposed by the present invention is a unique game paddle which offers a performance that largely defies the predictable rebound performance proffered by prior art apparatus. More particularly, I have discovered that it is possible to create a game paddle, wherein a rebound expanse is formed by a low-modulus-of-elasticity material which reacts to impact of an aerial object, such as a ball, to promote rebound generally "back along" the axis of impact. This surprising behavior offers a highly entertaining and generally unpredictable type of paddle/object play activity.
Also proposed by the present invention is a novel paddle/aerial object combination for play wherein the impact interaction between the paddle and the object leads to unique play consequences. While I have found that the paddle embodying the present invention reacts with substantially all ball-like aerial objects to create the unique rebound performance, which I refer to as retro-rebound, certain kinds of ball-like aerial objects, particularly those which, upon impact, respond by significant configurational collapse, tend to rebound more precisely along the particular axis of impact. One form of such an aerial object takes the form of multiple, elongate, floppy, elastomeric filaments that radiate in substantially all directions from a dense core, very much like an object currently made available by OddzOn Products of Campbell, Calif., sold under the registered trademark KOOSH.RTM. ball.
As mentioned, a paddle constructed in accordance with the invention, employed in combination with substantially any ball-like aerial object, offers the unique performance discussed above, and in the broadest sense of the contribution of this invention, the paddle is not limited for use with a KOOSH.RTM.-ball-like object.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the paddle takes the form of a two-piece molded paddle frame, including a handle and an extension thereof forming a generally circular, or slightly ovate, hoop. Mounted on the frame, and spanning the area defined by the hoop, is an expanse, which may be either a single-layer expanse or a double-layer expanse, of an interlock, bi-axially stretchable material, such as the well-known fabric sold under the trademark LYCRA.RTM.. This familiar fabric is a product manufactured by E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. Other similar materials may also be used for this expanse.
The exact phenomena explaining what one experiences with this paddle vis-a-vis retro-rebound are not known. However, observation clearly shows that the material chosen for and in the paddle's rebound expanse tends to minimize lateral roll of an impacting object. Lateral friction appears to build. A consequence of this seems to be that appreciable lateral (retro-rebound) force-loading occurs in the expanse. This can be represented as a lateral force vector which is directly opposite the incoming lateral impact force vector. Thus, an object tends to be returned generally along its incoming axis.
Various other objects and advantages which are offered by the invention will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.